This invention relates to seating and more particularly to head restraints for the seats of automotive vehicles.
In automobiles of current manufacture, the front seats, as a safety precaution, are equipped with head restraints, which are devices that project upwardly from the backrests of those seats, there usually being one at the driver's seat and another at the passenger's seat. Should the vehicle experience a sudden and unexpected jolt forwardly, as may occur in a rear end collision, the driver's and passenger's heads will jerk rearwardly and come against their respective head restraints, which arrest the movement, thereby preventing a serious injury known as whip lash.
Most head restraints of current design have a cushion and a single mounting post which extends into the backrest of the seat and supports the cushion above the upper edge of the backrest. The post telescopes within the backrest, enabling the elevation of the cushion to be adjusted to accommodate individuals of different height.
However, the cushion of the typical head restraint is normally set too far rearwardly to serve as a head rest, and is therefore of little comfort to the seat occupant on long highway trips. Indeed, the occupant must bend his neck backwardly into a somewhat uncomfortable, but not dangerous, position, to bring it against the cushion of the head restraint, and that position is usually a good deal more uncomfortable than holding one's head upright without support for long periods of time.
On one type of head restraint the cushion tilts forwardly and backwardly, and when forwardly may be used as a head rest. While these head restraints are better than the conventional head restraint, they are somewhat complex and difficult to assemble. Furthermore, most tilting head rests rely on friction to hold the cushion in whatever position to which it is moved, yet do not provide any means for controlling the frictional resistance. Should the friction surfaces wear, the cushion will swing too easily, and while still serving as a head restraint, it will not be very useful as a head rest.
Indeed, one type of adjustable head restraint that is currently used in some more expensive foreign automobiles has a U-shaped post, the legs of which project into the backrest of the seat. The connecting bight portion of the post serves as the mount for the cushion which is attached to it with saddle-type clamps. Thus the cushion pivots on the bight portion of the U-shaped post. However, the arrangement places the pivot axis too low, thereby causing the upper end of the cushion to swing through much too great of an arc. Also, the saddle clamps are exposed, making the head restraint somewhat unattractive.